One year ago I was a hacking, asthmatic yoga therapist desperately trying to ‘yoga’ and supplement my way to health so I could carry on in some manner of normal. After three exhausting months with no reprieve, I feared this latest iteration of respiratory blues had permanently lodged itself in my lungs. I reached outside my yoga toolbox and contacted a former student who had healed herself of asthma through the Buteyko breathing method. This ignited my world with a whole new interpretation of functional breathing calling into question my 30 years of training in yoga pranayama. It also launched the healthiest, most energy vital year of my life where I can say in retrospect, the gift of Buteyko has been nothing short of miraculous.

Every day in my yoga therapy practice I have a similar jigsawpuzzle experience. Typical scenario: a client enters asking for assistance in alleviating pain. Although pain can show up in a variety of places in the body, heart, or mind, objectively speaking “pain” is not a complete descriptor of the experience any particular person may be having at any particular time.